Opel Antara to head Holden's Captiva range

[douglask]

HOLDEN has pulled yet another rabbit out of its corporate hat by announcing its first ever medium 4WD range will be headed by a flagship based not on GM Daewoo’s South Korean-built Captiva but on GM Opel’s more upmarket Antara. The twin-pronged Captiva range will go on sale in November following its official public unveiling at the Sydney motor show opening on October 26 and its media launch early next month.

"It makes sense to launch two models under the same nameplate given it’s an all-new model for us, because it will avoid confusion," Holden spokesman Jason Laird told GoAuto. "Pricing will be competitive given we’re entering a mature market segment."

Rightly, Holden says Captiva will give it a "legitimate presence" in Australia’s competitive SUV landscape, in which it’s currently represented only by slow-selling models in the VZ Commodore wagon-based Adventra AWD and the Suzuki-sourced Cruze mini-SUV.

The latter will eventually be replaced by a compact SUV based on GM Daewoo’s T2X concept, which followed the S3X show car that became Captiva.

Just as Captiva plugs a gaping hole in Holden’s SUV product portfolio, another GM Daewoo-sourced model - the Epica sedan - will technically replace Vectra to give Holden a mid-sized Camry rival for the first time in December.

Full article:

http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf...A2571E70005BB8B

[Mule Bakersdozen LS]

Sounds good, if not obvious and absolutely unsurprising news seeing as how most volume Opel/Vauxhall's are shipped to hold in Australia (well, at least it used to be, until the Corsa-based Barina was dropped and the possible Vectra discontinuance).

[tommo]

So base models will be sourced from korea, but the flagship models will be sourced from opel, assuming spain, apart from country of origin, whats the difference?

[Mule Bakersdozen LS]

Welcome Tommo! I think Antara will also be built in Korea by Daewoo, but both are on an updated version of the Saturn VUE/Chevy Equinox/Pontiac Torrent's Theta architecture (both on the short 106" wheelbase of the VUE and not Equinox/Torrent), with Captiva to be lower-priced and offering seating for up to 7 passengers, and Antara to feature 5-passenger seating, and positioned more upscale.

[T-Keith]

Looks just like the VUE spypics.

[SimonDavid]

Looks just like the VUE spypics.

195535[/snapback]

The 2008 Vue and the Opel/Vauxhall Antara are the same vehicle

The Chevy Captiva that's just gone on sale here in Europe is the same bodyshell but lower spec interior and different front clip

All engineered by GM Daewoo on a modified SWB Theta

[Cadillacfan]

The Antara will be built in Korea but the VUE won't. That's why the VUE is a little different on the interior and exterior then it's Opel/Vauxhall/Holden counterparts.

Edited September 20, 2006 by Cadillacfan